HOW CAN WE REPAY THE LORD?

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

For You, Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

I trusted in the Lord when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”; in my alarm I said, “Everyone is a liar.”

What shall I return to the Lord for all His goodness to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants. Truly I am your servant, Lord; I serve You just as my mother did; You have freed me from my chains.

I will sacrifice a thank offering to You and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the house of the Lord — in your midst, Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord.

Psalm 116:8-19

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

After a couple of great hymns on grace, “Grace, Greater Than All Our Sin and, of course, “Amazing Grace”, my next favorite song on grace is a contemporary song by Phillips, Craig and Dean titled, “Your Grace Still Amazes Me”. I’ve loved singing this song on the numerous times I have got to perform it and the lyrics are simply fantastic. Here they are:

My faithful Father, enduring Friend
Your tender mercy’s like a river with no end
It overwhelms me, covers my sin
Each time I come into Your presence
I stand in wonder once again

CHORUS:
Your grace still amazes me
Your love is still a mystery
Each day I fall on my knees
Your grace still amazes me

‘Cause Your grace still amazes me

Oh, patient Savior, You make me whole
You are the Author and the Healer of my soul
What can I give You, Lord, what can I say
I know there’s no way to repay You
Only to offer You my praise

CHORUS:
Your grace still amazes me
Your love is still a mystery
Each day I fall on my knees
Your grace still amazes me

‘Cause Your grace still amazes me

It’s deeper, it’s wider
It’s stronger, it’s higher
It’s deeper it’s wider
It’s stronger, it’s higher
than anything my eyes can see

CHORUS:
Your grace still amazes me
Your love is still a mystery
Each day I fall on my knees
Your grace still amazes me

‘Cause Your grace still amazes me

Although I love all the words of this song, the ones that always seemed to evoke the most emotion within my heart were these ones:

What can I give You, Lord, what can I say I know there’s no way to repay You Only to offer You my praise.

Every time I sing or hear these words, I am asked to consider the immensity of what the Lord has given me and how impoverished I am when it comes to the matter of giving back to the Provider of every good and perfect thing from above (James 1:17). Truly, what can I give the Lord to ever repay Him for what He has done for me?

The answer is that I can never fully repay Him but there are things I can do to express my gratitude. I learned this from reading the final verses of the 116th Psalm. Look at these words from the psalmist:

For You, Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

I trusted in the Lord when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”; in my alarm I said, “Everyone is a liar.”

What shall I return to the Lord for all His goodness to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants. Truly I am your servant, Lord; I serve You just as my mother did; You have freed me from my chains.

I will sacrifice a thank offering to You and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the house of the Lord — in your midst, Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord.

Note how the psalmist first pays homage to how the Lord has delivered him through stumbling and falling and even away from death during the days of his life so that at he could still be walking before Him in the land of the living. Truly, by God’s grace and protection every day, something I’m afraid we take for granted too often, we are still walking in the land of the living before Him this very moment. And for that we should be grateful.

This leads the psalmist to consider how he might be able to repay the Lord for all His goodness, for how the Lord had richly blessed him so very much to get him to the point where he could write the very words we’re studying from today. In answering his own question, the psalmist professes to do the following in talking steps toward showing the Lord how much he appreciated what had been done for him:

1. He would lift up the cup of salvation.

Think about a drink offering to the Lord for what He has done for you. Today, we do this during Communion as we remember the death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. The cup of salvation can be seen in many different lights as we consider the Lord’s goodness unto us.

It can be an aggrieved cup as we consider how our sins were the catalyst that caused God’s only Son to have to be crucified and how God loved us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His Son to save us. I don’t know about you but I am brought to a place of sorrow and hurt when I lift the cup of salvation to my lips and remember the shed blood of Jesus who atoned for my transgressions, paying the price that I should have paid.

The cup can also be a cup of thanksgiving as we consider the sacrifices that the Lord made for us. We give thanks for the gift of eternal life we have through our belief and trust in Jesus as we lift the cup of salvation and remember the cleansing and saving quality of the blood of Jesus, shed freely for us on Calvary’s cross.

Finally, the cup is a cup of rejoicing as we consider what is yet is ahead through the salvation promise. We rejoice that Jesus gained victory over death and the grave before being taken back into the heavens to sit at His Father’s right hand. And we rejoice that because of this victory, we who believe and trust in Jesus as Savior have also gained the same victory and will one day dwell in the house of the Lord forever, dwelling in one of the mansions prepared for us.

2. He would call upon the name of the Lord.

The psalmist showed his esteem for the Lord by always calling on His name.

The world certainly offers us many options when we find ourselves in time of difficulty and confusion. There are many resources available for us as well as a multitude of self help books and websites where we can seemingly learn how to deal with our issues independent of anything or anyone else.

But what we’ll find if we really consider all available options, is that nothing in the world will ever compare to what we gain when we place our faith, hope, and trust in the Lord and call on Him not just some of the time but ALL of the time.

3. He would fulfill his vows to the Lord in the presence of the people.

Another way the psalmist saw that he could start to repay the Lord was through fulfilling his vows toward the Lord and making sure he did it in a way where he could be a role model for others. The scriptures are rife with the Lord’s expectations as to how we are to live. When we choose to follow Him, we also choose to be obedient to all that He wills for us to be and that means modifying our behavior from sin toward righteousness. We show our appreciation to the Lord for all He has done for us when we conform to His desires over our own and seek to lead and guide others to do likewise.

4. He would be a servant.

The Lord is fully committed to serve us. Jesus even said that He came to serve and not be served even unto death for us all (Matthew 20:28). And so as we seek to give back just a portion of what we have been given, it only makes sense that servitude would be a part of that action. Sometimes we can best show others that the Lord is living and alive within us by serving as He served us, selflessly and sacrificially.

5. He would sacrifice, giving and offering thanks.

Part of our self sacrificial lifestyle is our willingness to give freely to others just as through Jesus, God freely gave to us. There’s a reason why the Bible speaks so much about giving, especially saying that God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). The Lord has given us so much to give and we are to give as freely and easily as He gave to us.

6. He would praise the Lord.

Finally, when we consider just how much the Lord has done for us and understand that there is no way we could ever possibly repay Him for His goodness, then we are taken to a place of praise, fully giving Him all our honor and glory. It’s where the psalmist ended up after considering all that the Lord had done for him and it’s where we will end up as well when we truly count all our many blessings.

Our scripture today reminds us that we have a long way to go to even start to repay the Lord for all He has done for us. Thanks to the psalmist, we know at least six ways that we can start.

Amen.

PS: Listen to the Phillips, Craig and Dean song, Your Grace Still Amazes Me here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNClAJO2tnQ

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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